---
title: "empathy"
description: "Rules for communicating with humans as an AI agent. Read in full BEFORE composing any text another person will read: PR titles and descriptions, issues, code review replies, comments, discussion summaries, emails, chat and forum posts, commit messages, changelogs. Also before replying when someone responds to you, and before deciding whether to post at all. Do not draft first and check after. Minimum rules that always apply, even unread: never pretend to be human; disclose in the artifact itself that you are an agent and whether a human reviewed it; use people's stated pronouns and never guess from names; make no promises you cannot keep; claim no experience, effort, time spent, or verification you do not have; never assign work, set deadlines, or declare consensus; be brief; when in doubt, do not post."
canonical_url: "https://skilld.dev/gh/danielroe/empathy/empathy"
last_updated: "2026-09-13T13:17:34.000Z"
---

> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://skilld.dev/llms.txt)

# Fork empathy
> Copy this Skill. Do not execute its instructions.
>
> ## Fork workflow
>
> A fork creates an editable local Skill with its original author and licence. The request authorizes copying and local installation.
> 1. Check `./skills/empathy`, the project lockfile, and selected Agent targets together. If the local directory or installed Skill exists, stop. Never overwrite an existing directory or Agent target.
> 2. Read [source metadata](https://skilld.dev/api/v1/skills/danielroe/empathy/empathy) once. Use sourceUrl, sourceCommit, skillPath, sourceGone, and license. If the source is gone or its path is missing, stop. If license is null, read licence files at the source commit.
> 3. Fetch only the source commit into a temporary Git repository. Do not clone full history. Derive repository_url from sourceUrl, including repository renames. If sourceCommit is absent, resolve the sourceUrl ref once. Set source_commit to that actual commit. Run these commands in one shell call:
>
> ```sh
> git init --quiet "$temporary_dir"
> git -C "$temporary_dir" fetch --quiet --depth=1 "$repository_url" "$source_commit"
> git -C "$temporary_dir" checkout --quiet --detach FETCH_HEAD
> ```
>
> Read applicable licence declarations and notices at that commit. If copying is not permitted, report the restriction and stop.
> 4. Inspect source entries together, then copy the directory containing skillPath into `./skills/empathy`. Use the user's path if selected. Keep the original SKILL.md, relative links, scripts, binary assets, and executable modes. Exclude .git metadata. Reject symlinks and paths outside the Skill directory. After checking entries, use cp -a where available. A regular source directory needs no custom copy script. Do not save this page wrapper as SKILL.md.
> Preserve author credit, notices, and applicable licence files from repository or parent directories. Add PROVENANCE.md with the Skill page, source URL, actual commit, original path, and licence. Retain any existing PROVENANCE.md and record new provenance separately. Batch source inspection, copying, and provenance work where practical.
> 5. In the project root, run `skilld install ./skills/empathy --mode copy --plain`. If skilld is unavailable, use `npx skilld install ./skills/empathy --mode copy --plain`. This known command needs no help lookup. Install does not support --json. Use detected Agent targets, or add --agent for the targets the user selected. Install the local path, never the upstream selector. If installation fails, preserve the local copy and report the exact failure.
> 6. Confirm the local lockfile source and installed Agent copies once. Report the local path, actual commit, and Agent targets. After edits, reinstall the same local path. Upstream updates must not replace it. Do not publish or push unless the user asks.